AP Poll Top 3 Stay the Same and Other Movers

The newly minted AP Top 25 poll is now out for men’s college basketball, and there was quite a bit of movement within the poll. Below we take a look at the movers and the teams who fell. This is a poll where there were a few drops, but mostly things held serve.

Baylor Stays on Top

For a little while, it looked like it was a bad thing to have the #1 ranking in the country. Over the last few weeks, it has seemed that the #1 team in the country did not want to be there. Gonzaga went down first from the top spot, and Duke was voted #1.

Then Duke fell to Ohio State, which allowed fellow Big Ten member Purdue to take over the #1 spot. Then, Purdue fell on the road to Rutgers, which opened the door to Baylor Bears to grab the top spot in the poll.

Baylor successfully made it through a week without losing and thus bucking a trend that the favorites did not find very fun. Look for Baylor to get some tests coming up, but they are 11-0 and the unanimous #1 currently.

How did the Rest of the Top 10 Look?

It was a relatively quiet time for movement within the Top 10 this week. Baylor, Duke, and Purdue all held the top three spots for the second week in a row.

Gonzaga Bulldogs moved up a spot to number four, and that led to UCLA sliding back a single spot to round out the Top Five. Arizona slid up two spots and jumped over Kansas, who is sitting at #7 right now.

USC moved up two spots to #8, and Iowa State is the lone newcomer into the Top 10 at #9. Alabama slides down to #10 from #6 last week.

What Were Other Notable Moves Made This Week?

One of the biggest drops that we saw this week was Villanova suffering two big losses and sliding all the way down to #23 from #9. It was a 14 slot slide and was a big one for them after being ranked inside the Top Five at one point this season.

There were three newcomers into the poll this week as both Providence, Wisconsin, and Texas Tech made it in. Providence moved up six spots to #22 in the country, while Wisconsin moved up two spots into the rankings. Texas Tech slides into the poll after not getting any votes last week.

Thanks to Villanova sliding back 14 spots this week, pretty much everyone within the Top 25 poll moved up a spot. Besides Villanova, Tennessee dropped back a spot to #19. Besides those two teams, there was really no one else outside of the top ten that made much of a move.

As we get into conference play, I would expect to see some more movement as teams start to play each other more.

Who is on the Outside?

The following teams received votes and are looking to make their way into the Top 25 quickly: Oklahoma (65), West Virginia (57), Connecticut (55), Illinois (49), Loyola Chicago (42), Michigan, Arkansas, Brigham Young, North Carolina (7), San Francisco (6), Wake Forest (5), Virginia Tech (4), Oklahoma State (4), Iowa (3), Minnesota (3), Creighton, Memphis (1).

These teams are the teams who are next in line if a team within the Top 25 drops a game.

Oklahoma has been playing some really good basketball so far this year, and I would expect that they move in if someone drops this week. Watch out for Creighton as well this year, as they are sneaky good and getting some votes.

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**All views expressed are my own. My picks are my own and are not a guarantee, bet at your own risk.